How effectively does Hughes convey the power of the jaguar?
How effectively does Hughes convey the power of the jaguar? Ted Hughes' poem 'The Jaguar' describes the animals in a zoo and their lifestyles. It also compares them to the jaguar, which is an animal that lives differently to the others in the way that it views its life. The poem depicts the jaguar as powerful, but in what way? The first line of Ted Hughes' poem the jaguar is: "The apes yawn and adore their fleas in the sun." From the very first three words it is clear that the apes are tired, and the fact that they are in the sun adds to the sleepy air. I think this line was deliberately chosen to begin to convey the monotonous lull of everyday life in the zoo and set a drowsy mood. They are "adoring" their fleas, which is not a word commonly used in these circumstances. Playing with fleas is normal behaviour for apes, but the use of the word adoring suggests that they are glad of the distraction in their lethargic state. From this line, the apes do not sound threatening, more bored. The second line has a rather different tone; it tells of the parrots that screech as if on fire. Parrots do indeed screech, so this is literal, but it has connotations of pain or perhaps boredom. Obviously they are not literally on fire, so these words could have been chosen to help exhibit their brightly coloured plumage or to remain with the painful image and to display their
An essay on Ted Hughes' 'The Jaguar' that differentiates between the jaguar and the animals
An essay of Ted Hughes' 'The Jaguar' that differentiates between the jaguar and the animals. Hughes' poem portrays various zoo animals. However, as the title suggests, his focus is upon the jaguar, from which he distinguishes the other animals using a few literary devices. In the opening verse, the mood of faineance has an almost narcotic effect on the reader, created by the presence of punctuation and reinforced by the poet's use of words such as 'yawn', 'Fatigues', and 'indolence'. The parrots' shrieking "as if they were on fire" might perhaps stand out as a contrast to the relative dull and somnolence of the atmosphere if it were not for the fact that the entire verse is interrupted here and there by punctuation marks, which indicate pauses and which slow down the pace of the poem, thereby establishing the mood of boredom and sleepiness. The shrill noises made might not even be loud enough to be deafening or distracting, in which case the image conjured up in our minds would be one of the animals being lulled to slumber by the stillness and placidity of the zoo atmosphere, punctuated only occasionally by the squawks of the parrots. This lack of physical movement is further evidenced in the next stanza, where Hughes uses metaphorical language, calling the coils of the boa constrictor a 'fossil'. Here it is almost as if he is implying that the animals lie so still all